


Sing Me To Sleep

by sadIittlenerdking



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Did I mention angst, Gen, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 07:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10827081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadIittlenerdking/pseuds/sadIittlenerdking
Summary: They defeat the beast, but something goes horribly wrong.





	Sing Me To Sleep

Alice has the beast in her grasp, when the beast fires off a spell and Quentin goes crashing against a tree. Eliot rushes to his side, kneeling next to him, one hand on his shoulder, one on his thigh. Quentin shakes his head, “Go - I’m fine. Stop the beast.” But his words are singed with pain as his eyes squeeze shut, and he takes a deep, shuttering breath. 

“Q -,” As he speaks, the battle disappears through the brush of the woods. 

Quentin opens his eyes, but Eliot can tell it takes more effort than he’s letting on. “Do - do you want to be the reason the world ends? Go help Alice!” He yanks his arm out of Eliot’s hand, and sits up, “I just need a second. I’m fine. I’ll catch up. Go.” 

Eliot hesitates, but Quentin’s hand comes up, rests overtop Eliot’s on his thigh, and he nods. “Okay … but I’m coming back for you. Okay?” 

“No need. I’ll be right behind you.” 

“You’d better be,” Eliot murmurs, reaching forward, to rest his forehead against Quentins, “Because I need you, okay?” Quentin nods, pulling away and Eliot climbs to his feet. He takes one last glance down at Quentin, before sighing and running after the battle. 

When he finally finds them, Alice is corner between a rock and the beast, the spell whirling around in front of her. Margo releases her demon, and it goes crashing through the air towards the beast, screaming until it rocks into him. He stands there, arms outstretched and staring up at the sky, an internal battle with whatever the demon is doing, and then an explosion of hot air erupts around them, and the beast sends a spell throwing Margo across the clearing. 

Eliot, unsure of what to do, rushes, crouching down towards her. She sits up and glares at the beast as she climbs to her feet. “Come at me you abnormal freak!” She screams as she dusts the dirt off the back of her dress. The beast glares, lifting his hands to cast a curse at her, but Eliot jumps in the way, squeezes his eyes shut, ready for whatever excruciating spell is coming his way, when there’s a roar of angry magic that courses through the woods around them. He opens his eyes, wondering why it hasn’t knocked him down or killed him, just as Alice’s fire ball of power goes crashing through the air and knocking straight into the beast, crashing through his skull. 

His body stands there for a moment, still, and the woods around them seem to go silent. 

Then his knees give out beneath him, and his body falls to the ground with a final burst of dust around him, and a soft thump as his body hits it. Blood seeps out of the hole his head used to be apart of, and the four of them stare down at it for a long moment, unsure as to whether or not the beast will find a way to get up from this, too. 

“Fuck yeah!” Margo finally screams, rushing forward and kicking at his chest. “Go to hell you fucking shit stain!” She laughs, turning towards Alice, “You did it you fucking beautiful motherfucking bitch!” Her grin turns on Penny, as he sits up from where the beast had knocked him out. “Welcome back. We won.”

Eliot feels a soft, relieved laugh bubble out of him as the three of them approach the body. There’s no movement other than the slow pooling of blood around it. 

“We did it,” Alice says, soft, “We actually did it.” 

Eliot nods, surprised. “It only took 40 tries,” He mutters, leaning over the body and making a face. “He’s not so bad ass.” 

Margo laughs, but stops mid breath. Eliot turns to look at her, furrowing his brow, and she’s twisting around, looking for something. “Where’s -,” She stops, looks at him, wide eyed. “Where’s Quentin?” Her voice is frantic, as she turns back around, and then she’s jogging around the clearing, “Quentin?” She calls out, loud and yet, somehow breathless. 

Eliot’s heart stops. “He said he was fine,” He whispers. Penny and Alice start looking as well, checking behind bushes and trees. “He -,” He pauses, blinking, as he turns to face the direction they’d come. “He said he’d be right behind us.” He shakes his hand, swallowing hard. He raises his voice, “He said he’d be right behind us!” And then he’s running, retracing his steps to the place he last saw Quentin. 

Somewhere, distantly, he can hear the others following him, but his heart is racing, pumping in his ears, hard and angry and erratic as he crashes through foliage and see’s Quentin there, slumped up against the tree. His eyes are closed, and Eliot’s not sure if Quentin’s chest is rising and falling, and he runs faster, breathing in quick and angry pants, until he falls to his knees and slides across the grass towards him. He doesn’t even take note of the grass stains that are bound to be all along the front of his pants from the knee down. 

His hands go straight to Quentin’s waist and chest. One shaking hand, reaching up to check for a pulse. But he can’t compell them to stop shaking long enough to get an actual pulse.

Distantly he hears a scream of, “No!” Roar out of Margo before her footsteps scorch the grass behind him. But he can’t pay any mind to her or the others. He moves his shaking hands up to Quentin’s face, slaps him gently. 

“Come on, Q,” he whispers, shaking him, “Open your fucking eyes.” 

He feels something dark and terrible welling up in him, grasping onto every vein in his heart, and upending his stomach, but then Quentin’s eyes are fluttering open, and he’s staring up at him through half lidded eyes. Something inside Eliot heaves as he leans forward, grabbing Quentin by the hair as gently as he can, and pulling him into his chest. 

He feels the others get to them, kneeling next to them. A hand on his back as he cradles Quentin to his chest. “Don’t do that,” He whispers, hard and angry as he pulls away, just long enough to look at him, “You fucking open your eyes when someone slaps you.” 

Quentin nods, weak and not at all like he’s okay, and that darkness comes back, searching for Eliot’s heart. “Okay,” But his words are soft, too soft, and he can barely keep his eyes open. 

Margo’s hand comes between them, grabs onto Quentin’s bicep, “Don’t you fucking dare die,” She orders, but her voice is quivering, and her knuckles turn white, where she’s gripping his arm, “Because I cannot go handle these two without you,” She adds, softer, swallowing thickly as her eyes dart up to Penny, Alice and Eliot. 

“You’re okay,” Penny says, then, “Stop being a pussy and get up.” 

Quentin shakes his head, the motion not at all stable, and he leans forward into Eliot’s chest. “Tired,” He mumbles, the word so slurred Eliot can barely understand him.

The darkness is reaching up his veins, sucking the oxygen out of every blood cell. “Come on, Q, stay awake,” He says, leaning his forehead on the top of Quentin’s skull, “We can get you help, you just have to stay away. You can do that. You never sleep anyways.” 

But Quentin doesn’t respond.

He pulls away, just enough to see his face, but the eyes looking back are empty. A sound rips out of Eliots chest, as he pulls Quentin back into him, loud and angry and full of something he can’t quite explain. His legs give out beneath him, and he falls with them bent on either side of him, as Quentin’s body follows him. He’s sitting with his legs outstretch, bent at the waist, head and shoulders tucked into Eliot’s chest, but his arms hand limply beside him. Brush against Eliot’s sides, still warm, but motionless. 

Margo’s breath hitches, and she falls back on her butt on the grass, knees bent in front of her, arms crossed overtop her thighs, hands cupping her mouth. A whimper is muffled beneath her hands. Penny staggers backwards, standing to full attention, and Alice sobs openly, as Eliot rocks Quentin’s lifeless body back and forth. 

They stay like that. Nobody moves to pull Quentin and Eliot apart. Not even the wind dares interrupt the echoing silence all around them, muted only by the steady, angry beating of Eliot’s heart in his ears. Slow, exagerrated beats pumping through him. He can feel the warmth of his tears streaming down his cheeks, feels Quentin’s hair go damp because of them, but he can’t make himself let go. Can’t make himself ease the pain racing down his back in spikes with his rock back and forth her makes with Quentin’s body. 

Can’t bear to move in any way other than like this. Like he’s just rocking Quentin to sleep. 

He doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but he starts whispering a lullaby into Quentin’s hair, barely a sound on the wind at first, but then it’s turn into a soft, hoarse song as he cries the words into existance. 

He’s just singing him to sleep. 

At some point Penny and Alice leave to find help, but Margo and Eliot stay. Neither of them move. Neither of them leave Quentin.

Something inside them breaks, that neither of them even knew they had in them. Something strong and hollow that held them together through all their pain, and their anguish. 

But it’s swallowed hole by the darkness.

Margo’s hand finds Eliot’s in Quentin’s hair, and she’s singing with him too. The words soft, blurred together between sobs and heaving breaths. 

And like that they stay, singing Quentin to sleep, until Penny returns with palace guards, and they pull Quentin from their grasp, carry him away on a vine wrapped stretcher. 

They only get Margo and Eliot back to the castle when Penny places a hand on both of their shoulders, and lands them in Quentin’s room in the castle, where they both curl up under the blankets, lie face to face, and stare blankly into each other. Margo’s hands find Eliot’s jaw, and his find her waist, at some point, and together they stay. Crying quietly. 

They fall asleep singing Quentins lullaby. 

 


End file.
